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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29536866">To build a home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashesofthisworld/pseuds/Ashesofthisworld'>Ashesofthisworld</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - No Girlfriends/No Wives, Boys Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Short &amp; Sweet, Short One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:47:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,077</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29536866</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashesofthisworld/pseuds/Ashesofthisworld</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark seems to notice a change of mood on Ethan lately.</p><p>After some thinking, he discovered that somehow he feels the same way too, so he proposes that both of them can live together for an indefinite amount of time. And maybe the two of them can make Mark's house a home.</p><p>[I suck at summaries btw]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mark Fischbach/Ethan Nestor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To build a home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi ^^ This one-shot is lightly based on the song from the same title, to build a home by The cinematic orchestra! It's a really sad and cool song, and you can listen to it just to get the mood for the fic if you want!</p><p>Also, English isn't my first language. I actually write my fics in spanish (I'm from Uruguay!) and then I translate them. So, if you see any grammatical errors, sorry, that's on me! I'm still trying to learn ^^!</p><p>And, of course, this is a work of fiction and it has no intention of hurting anyone mentioned or involved on it. I love Mark and Ethan, and I know they are humans too and deserve respect, so I dont write anything they haven't stated before they are comfortable with! (Aka,  they're not comfortable with sexual or harmful stuff)</p><p>Hope you enjoy the reading ^^!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sparkle in his eyes. That was the first thing Mark suspected disappeared from his friend. The indecipherable brown-green in his eyes was duller now, as if the glint was no longer spark but smoke. </p><p>Mark wasn't sure how it happened. Whether it was something gradual or something spontaneous, when he reviewed his memory he never accurately found a cause. </p><p>He had suspicions, some of them without a very defined reason and others based on very solid grounds. </p><p>He believed, for some time, that the loneliness of quarantine sapped Ethan's spirit, which was partly true, and partly just a circumstance that might had made something even deeper worse. So the thought didn't last long before he discarded it. </p><p>He also believed that the end of Unus Annus was the problem, but the channel ended months ago, and although they both went their separate ways, they were still in contact, still doing video-calls together and goofing around like before. So he probably didn't miss being around him in real life, and it was completely self-centered to assume otherwise, right? </p><p>Finally, he thought of something very small. An unnoticed fact that could easily pass for a sigh in the middle of the call they had last week, but that echoed in Mark's head as he ran through his own hall of thoughts. He said his house was big, indeed, but somehow it felt empty. </p><p>Mark, at that moment, could imagine Ethan walking from room to room, looking for something he couldn't find. Cleaning the dust from old chairs that surrounded a one-person table. Feeling in a desert, wandering aimlessly and doing mundane tasks until the day was done and he could sleep again in the right corner of an empty bed. </p><p>Mark sometimes felt that way. Lying in the sun, looking for some kind of outer heat. Sometimes sitting in his living room, his knee searching for someone's knee to bump into. Silence filling the room, suffocating him through the day until he video-called Ethan when the moon was high on the sky. In those days he would lie on the left side of the bed and exhaust himself talking about everything. And when he spoke to Ethan, then his house did feel full. </p><p>So Mark proposed to Ethan the idea of living together. Not as romantic partners (although he couldn't deny that he fantasized about the idea of a domestic life more than once) but more as roommates. The argument that Mark offered was that it would improve the mental health of both of them. Because first, they will finally have someone of flesh and blood to chat and not just a voice and the interpretation of a face coming out of the cold of their cell phones, and second, they could take care of each other. Like remaining (or forcing, for the better) the other to sleep and stuff. </p><p>Also, they could split the house payments between them (although their money was never tight) and their dogs would be happy to live together indefinitely. And, even if Mark didn't tell him head-on, the Asian missed Ethan's presence more than anything else in the world. He no longer wanted his room to be only inhabited by him and his shadow. </p><p>Ethan agreed, suggesting they move into Mark's house and not his. Mark didn't ask why, but he guessed it was because his house was more spacious. Plus, its walls could isolate more the cold during the winter. </p><p>When Ethan arrived a few weeks later, moving boxes decorated the living room. They arrived first, leaving Mark with the desire to inspect its contents but with enough willpower to respect Ethan's privacy. </p><p>The younger only laughed when Mark told him about it, both of them grabbing the lighter boxes (full of clothes) and going up the stairs to the guest room. Well, it wasn't for guests now. It was just for Ethan. Wardrobe, double bed and balcony. Luxurious but small, and a blank space they started decorating that morning. </p><p>Mark didn't notice him at the time, too busy stuffing and folding clothes into drawers, but Ethan stopped his work to watch him closely. And in the amalgam of color in his eyes, a glint sweeter than that of a sunset peeked out showering him in admiration. </p><p>Both coexisted for months, under the same roof, between the same stone walls that refused the passage of winter cold. </p><p>The two of them always sat on parallel sides of the table (although there were days when they ate close, almost joined by the hips), so the dust-worn chairs now had a new use. </p><p>Both shared always a sheet on the couch while watching movies, and during the days they spent on the living room they enjoyed the sunlight and how the other's face was outlined by the yellow-orange of the sky. </p><p>They never realized when they relationship climbed from platonic glances to holding hands, and then to hugging each other when their insecurities cracked their hearts and the only thing that kept them from breaking were each other's arms. </p><p>It was no longer just the necessity to be around anyone else, now there was something floating between them that neither commented for fear of making a bad assumption or moving too fast. Until Ethan took the first step. </p><p> </p><p>It was just a brush of lips, it barely qualified as a kiss, but it left sequels in Mark's heart. He left a planted seed that only grew when he returned the kiss a day after, branches joining their souls so tightly that the gusts that touched their bond were barely blows. </p><p>They were both speechless for days, both petrified and sunken under an avalanche of new feelings. Until Mark asked. </p><p>He asked, with a look full of desire and doubt, if Ethan really felt at home. </p><p>If the walls, chairs, and tables were no longer strange to him. If the bed where he slept before was now just a ghost, to which perhaps he did not want to return anymore. </p><p>And if maybe, just maybe, he wanted to sleep on his right, where the silence always burned, and he could sleep on his left, where before nothing was warm and alive like him. And maybe they will feel complete. </p><p>To which Ethan replied, his eyes bright and soft. "It really is a home, for me and you." </p><p>And the statement was etched on the walls of their home, and in Mark's heart as well.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for making it to the end! Hope you enjoyed, kudos are greatly appreciated! </p><p>Last thing, I think this is going to be my last work on this ship! I'm starting to transition from the markiplier/crankgameplays fandom to another one, so, I guess we'll see soon, if somehow I came one day back again!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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